LODI — The golden ticket at this year’s Golden State Pinball Festival, Friday through Sunday at the Lodi Grape Festival Fairgrounds, is the Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory machine.

It’s not pure imagination.

An owner has donated the newest coveted machine to the event that will feature some 350 games, all on loan by owners from Los Angeles to the state of Washington.

“It’s a great community,” said Steve Frisvold, of the Northern California Pinball Association, which puts on the event. “This show is 100 percent volunteer and collector sourced. All the games are from private collections.”

They’ve been played in family game rooms and such, with the exception of 24 games from Marco Specialties, one of the organization’s partners.

“We have 24 new, in-box games that people have purchased,” tournament director Michael Hosier said. “It will be exciting to see the 24 machines unboxed.”

The new games will line up with others that owners confidently share with strangers.

The event, which runs 1-11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-midnight Saturday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, includes tournaments for adults, women and kids. Buy-in is $10 or free for those who volunteer or provide a machine. All other games are free, included in the price of admission.

Among Friday’s events is a 6 p.m. kickoff dinner when the Spirit of Steve Charland Award will be presented to Chris Kuntz.

“He was a great friend of the show,” Frisvold said of Charland, who died two years ago. “He was the kind of guy if you called him up with a problem with your pinball machine, he’d spend an hour on the phone or online with you or come over within five minutes to help. He had vast knowledge and was a great guy.”

Kuntz, 52, a Benicia-based pinball aficionado who repairs and sells the machines, is humbled.

“You could win the Nobel Peace Prize or Congressional Medal of Honor, but this means more to me, to win an award named for a friend,” Kuntz said. “I’m honored and flattered.”

Kuntz was introduced to pinball as a little boy visiting Lake Okoboji in Iowa. He was too little to see what the bigger kids were playing, but once he could see over the top of the machine, the magic of a pinball machine was realized.

He describes himself as being in the “narrow range of ages” of people who enjoy pinball and video games. Those a bit older were never as enthusiastic about video games and those younger only knew video games.

He started working at an arcade in Pleasanton as a teenager and has remained in the pinball industry since. He worked for a pinball repair man and ultimately became sole owner of the company. He also sells machines and said he would have some new products at the festival.

Pinball machines have naturally evolved over what Kuntz calls the games’ three golden eras: the 1970s, the 1990s when they returned, and today.

“There are all kinds of innovation, competitions and manufacturers,” Kuntz said. “There are generic, non-licensed properties, but almost all machines are licensed. You can announce a ‘Star Wars’ machine and it sells before anyone has seen it or played it. It’s also nice for a designer to have the freedom of non-licensed games, and seeing unique things from manufacturers.”

In addition to looking more modern with LED displays, today’s games have greater complexity and sophisticated rules.

“Games from 20, 30 years ago have some gimmick,” Kuntz said. “They made you laugh or made you play once or twice. With the home market so large — not someone sipping a beer who plays it one night in a bar — players get good at it. They own it forever. They want there to always be a little more, something they haven’t unearthed.

“To make it fun is elusive. It’s surprising how often they get a thumbs-up,” Kuntz said.

Festivalgoers will get the chance to judge for themselves if they succeeded.